Appointment Date

We have our official appointment date - September 24.  That will be our first of two appointments to get our referrals for the boys.  Since the boys are not related, we are required to have a separate appointment for each one's referral.  We are looking at flights out on the 21st so we will have time to get there and get settled in and to account for any delays on the way to Ukraine.  So in 25 days we will be on our way to Ukraine to meet the boys for the first time!  Very exciting times.  Our big kids are all trying to come home this weekend - it will be the last time we are all together as a family of 8.  We will continue to prepare for the trip while enjoying our time with our family.  Please pray for all of us as we move into this next phase of the adoption.  And, of course, please pray for S and V!  I so badly wish we could tell them we are coming!!

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."  John 14:18

Tomorrow

Not much to report but I think we may have some exciting news tomorrow!!!  Our date has been set and we are just waiting for one more person to sign off on it for it to be official.  Of course, today is a holiday in Ukraine so we are waiting for tomorrow.  I will update as soon as we have confirmation!  Checking flight information and getting our ducks in a row.  We are just a little excited....and soaking up time with our girls before we leave.

Have a great day!

New Jewelry for Sale

I have been busy making jewelry the past few days to raise money to help cover the extra time I will be in Ukraine.  Here are some pictures.  Let me know if you are interested in any - or if you know of any local stores who might be interested in carrying any of it.  All proceeds will go into our adoption fund!

Love is Patient

We are still waiting on our travel date, but our facilitator did tell us yesterday that he thinks we will have it next week!  Which we hope would mean that we will be heading to Ukraine in the next 5 weeks.  We really thought we would be home from Ukraine by now with the boys, yet here we are waiting to leave still.  Love is patient.  :)  We are getting lots of practice in patience.  I keep coming across this verse, "We love because He first loved us."  1 John 4:19.   I tend to not believe in coincidence when something comes up in my daily life repetitively.  So I have been thinking a lot about love this week.  And it is so true that we love because God first loved us.  We are not the redeemers of the boys, we are the redeemed.  We love them because God loves us.  We think you can really boil life down to love God, love people.  It is really pretty simple.  And goodness, the people we have seen love from since we started this process!  Just this week, we have had a dear friend donate more stuff for us to sell so we can live in Ukraine for 4 months.  (Thank you Jamie!)  And then a sweet, sweet lady found our blog and then found our Etsy store and ordered some jewelry.  Then turns out she lives like 5 miles away!  So I got to deliver the jewelry to her and visit her and hear a little of her story.  And she works with and knows my sister in law.  (Hi, Betty!)  The people God has solidified in our lives and the new people He has brought into our lives has been such a blessing.  Such a tapestry of interwoven people caring about S and V and helping to bring them home.  It is completely humbling as we see all of this love.  Since finding out I will have to be in Ukraine much longer than originally expected and that we would need more money for those extra 8 weeks, I started making more jewelry to help offset those expenses.  A new bronze jewelry connector came in this week that I had forgotten I had ordered and it says, "Love is Patient".  I am excited about getting some bracelets made with them and I will certainly be keeping one for myself as a reminder.

In the meantime, we are making some great memories.  We got Collin back on the road to the University of Arkansas last weekend for his senior year, we got Caroline moved into her dorm for her freshman year at Mississippi State University, we are enjoying every minute we can with Jocelyn, Ellie Grace, and Ali and making great strides in some projects we have on going.  God's timing is always best.

Oh, and we talk to Emileigh regularly, she just is not home.  She has started her 3rd year of physical therapy school, is doing clinical rotations now, and has been cussed at by her first patient. :)   We also really love her and are so proud of her.  I do not think she could have chosen a better profession for herself!

So, remember:

1.  We love because He first loved us.

2.  Love God, love people.

3.  Love is patient.

Oh, and keep praying for our boys!!!

Dossier Approved

We got word this morning that our dossier has been approved by the SDA in Ukraine!  So now we wait for our travel date.  Baby steps but very good news!  Everything is taking longer than we expected but this extra time has been good.  We will be able to move Caroline into her dorm and see Collin back off to school.  We have additional time to gather gifts for the children in the orphanage and for others in Ukraine who will be helping us with our journey.  We have been able to get a head start on Jocelyn's school year.  All good things and we continue to trust in God's timing.

We have had a good response to the donations for the orphanage and in fact have plenty of toothbrushes as of now.  We still need socks as we would like to give each of the 60 children at least one pair of socks.  We have received many other items - pencils, stickers, bouncy balls - that we feel the kids will enjoy.  Thanks so much to all of you who are helping!

"You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;"  Matthew 5:14